Reagan Agrees to Videotaped Testimony in Poindexter Trial : Iran-Contra: The former President forgoes his right to executive privilege. He will be questioned under oath as a defense witness.

Former President Ronald Reagan, forgoing his right to claim executive privilege, agreed Friday to testify on videotape as a defense witness in John M. Poindexter’s Iran-Contra trial.

Reagan will be questioned under oath by Poindexter’s lawyers and cross-examined by the Iran-Contra special counsel during the taping. Although Reagan previously provided information about the scandal that broke out during his second term, the videotaped testimony will be the closest he has come to the give-and-take of a court of law.

In a four-page brief filed with U.S. District Judge Harold H. Greene, Reagan’s lawyers said the use of videotape--instead of live testimony in the courtroom--would permit the former President to respond to questions without running the risk of inadvertently disclosing sensitive national secrets. If such secrets were mentioned, they would be deleted from the tape.

The brief said Reagan “recognizes that the videotape deposition format will provide an appropriate mechanism for all parties, including the incumbent and former presidents, to protect sensitive, classified national security information and confidential deliberations.”

Reagan’s attorney, Theodore B. Olson, said the former President “will not assert executive privilege” with respect to the videotaped testimony. He added that Reagan would defer to President Bush and the Justice Department “with respect to issues of executive privilege concerning national security or foreign affairs that may arise during the taking of the videotaped deposition.”

Greene ruled earlier that either Reagan or Bush could claim executive privilege. Reagan has already claimed executive privilege to avoid turning over excerpts from his diaries; that issue remains unresolved.

In a brief submitted late Friday, the Justice Department concurred somewhat reluctantly with Reagan’s decision regarding the videotaping.

“The current Administration . . . hereby also notifies the court that, like the former President, it waives that aspect of the executive privilege which would otherwise excuse President Reagan from submitting to such a deposition,” the department said.

“Many of the questions (Poindexter) proposes to ask former President Reagan fit squarely within the area protected by executive privilege,” the department added. “They seek to inquire into foreign policy deliberations within the President’s office. Accordingly, the privilege could be claimed as to these lines of inquiry.”

However, the department said it decided against invoking privilege at this point, although it reserved the right to do so during the taping if sensitive matters are raised.

Reagan suggested that the taping be done next Friday in his office in Los Angeles. The Justice Department supported that date. After receiving the former President’s brief, Greene issued a one-sentence order setting a hearing for 11 a.m. Monday to approve the ground-rules for the session.

“Former President Reagan recognizes that this court has a considerable responsibility to protect and preserve the rights of the defendant in this case as well as to be sensitive to the interests of the former President and the constitutional rights and duties of the presidency,” Olson added.

In an earlier order, Greene said he would preside over the former President’s testimony, ruling on objections raised by lawyers from either side. Specifically, the judge said he would consider claims of executive privilege or national security that might be raised as the taping goes along.

The judge also limited Poindexter’s lawyers to 154 specific questions which they submitted in advance. Although lawyers will be allowed to ask follow-up questions, they will not be permitted to introduce additional subjects.

The Justice Department said that seven of the 154 questions “delve into the nature of various communications between former President Reagan and foreign heads of state, which are, to our knowledge, still undisclosed and sensitive.”

Nevertheless, the department said that none of the questions, including the seven, “pose serious problems” as phrased by Poindexter’s lawyers.

“However, follow-up questions could lead into sensitive areas, including foreign relations matters, that are still protected . . . thus it is possible a specific follow-up question may raise an issue of privilege.”

Greene reserved the right to edit the tape to eliminate matters which should not be disclosed. The tape would be kept secret until it was played during Poindexter’s trial, which is scheduled to begin Feb. 20.

In contrast to his agreement to give oral testimony, Reagan earlier this week invoked executive privilege in an effort to avoid turning over to Poindexter’s lawyers more than 30 excerpts from his White House diaries. Greene has said he will hold a hearing to determine whether Reagan’s claim of constitutionally guaranteed confidentiality outweighs Poindexter’s need for evidence to defend himself.

Poindexter, who was Reagan’s national security adviser, is charged with five felony counts of obstructing Congress, making false statements and conspiracy. He apparently is seeking to show that he was acting with presidential approval, although Reagan has denied that.

Reagan was interviewed by the Tower Commission, which first investigated secret arms sales to Iran and the diversion of some of the profits to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. Later, Reagan supplied written answers to questions submitted by the Iran-Contra grand jury. Excerpts from Reagan’s diaries were given to the congressional Iran-Contra committees, but the papers were never made public.

Reagan’s two immediate predecessors--Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter--both provided videotaped testimony while in office. Ford testified as a defense witness in 1975 in the trial of Lynette (Squeaky) Fromme, who was convicted of trying to assassinate him.

Carter gave taped testimony twice. Once he was a government witness in the perjury and gambling trial of a Georgia state senator. Later, he testified before a federal grand jury investigating allegations that fugitive financier Robert Vesco tried to bribe officials of the Carter Administration.

Although no President or former President has ever been forced to testify in open court against his will, the courts have held as far back as 1807 that a President has an obligation to provide evidence in trials.